The total consumption of washing and cleaning agents in Europe is, at present, 4 million tons per year, of this, 0.65 to 0.7 million tons are consumed in Germany. Ten percent (10%) of the washing and cleaning agents come from the area of washing softeners which are commonly represented by cationic surfactants mainly from the group of quaternary dialkyl-ammonium esters (esterquats). However, cationic softeners frequently exhibit inadequate hydrophilic properties on textiles and prove unsuitable for finishing of cellulose fibers, as for example, in cotton underwear.
Up to now, anionic softeners have played only a subordinate role in the textile industry. The main reason for this—in comparison to the normally used cationic softeners—is the poor grip and the somewhat low adsorptive capacity. An advantage of the anionic softener, as compared to cationic surfactants, is a lower tendency to turn yellow because they do not contain any nitrogen-containing group in the molecule which, in combination with atmospheric oxygen, frequently leads to yellowing in textiles.
The increasing ecological demands present a special challenge for washing agents and softeners. It was already established in 1964 in the detergent law (German) that at least 80% of the surfactant used must be biodegradable. Likewise, in 1975, it was specified in the washing agent law that washing agents must not contain any environmental hazardous additives. These requirements are the basis for the redevelopment of laundry treatment agents. An effective environmental compatibility should be considered not only with regard to the end-products used but also in the manufacture of the products and the selection of the feedstock and intermediate products for the manufacture. Similarly, laundry softeners must be characterized by very good skin compatibility because they largely remain on the textile fiber and thus come in direct contact with the body.
Therefore, an aspect of the present invention is to make available textile softeners with hydrophilic properties, which lead to a low tendency of underwear to yellow, which have good adsorptive characteristics particularly on hydrophilic textile fibers, which meet the increasing environmental demands during manufacture and with regard to skin compatibility and biodegradability.